DHAHRAN: Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj, who recently won an Emerging Artists’ Medal at the Art Basel Awards in Switzerland, launches his first institutional solo exhibition this month at Jameel Arts Center in Dubai.
“Mohammad Alfaraj is part of a new generation of fast-rising artists from the region, deeply attuned to their landscapes, communities and traditions,” Art Jameel’s deputy director and head of exhibitions and programs Nora Razian said in a statement. “His is a practice that is both poetic and critical, and we are incredibly thrilled to host his first institutional solo exhibition, which offers a profound and intimate glimpse into the ways cities, communities and even languages experience change.”
Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj. (Supplied)
“Seas Are Sweet, Fish Tears Are Salty,” which runs until January, consists of multimedia works that often incorporate found objects as well as organic materials indigenous to Alfaraj’s hometown of Al-Ahsa, such as palm fronds and dates.
Curated by Art Jameel’s Rotana Shaker, the show winds through both the indoor galleries and outdoor courtyards of the center. Themes of environment, community and shared memory emerge — often filtered through humor and tenderness.
“I’m pretty new to the ‘art world’ but definitely immersed in art itself, whether I choose to be or not,” Alfaraj tells Arab News. “I’m always looking for metaphors and different ways of looking at the world, and trying to piece it together as an enormous complex mosaic that I’m lucky to experience and be part of.”
The title aptly captures the tone of the exhibition — childlike, poetic and emotionally resonant.
"What does the water dream of but to burst into flames." (Supplied)
“Imagining, and believing, that what makes the oceans and seas salty is fish’s tears is very childish — and super-empathetic too,” he continues. “To feel and recognize the suffering of the other — whether a human, an animal or any living creature — is absolutely necessary in today’s world, which unfortunately seems to be heading towards more apathy.”
Alfaraj comes from a family of farmers, and Al-Ahsa — a lush oasis full of palm trees — frequently inspires his work. He often uses nature as both a canvas and a tool, letting organic material shape his artistic language.
“I’m attracted to a certain material because it matches the concept and the idea of the work; like, to use rice paper to tell stories about the fading rice farming in Al-Ahsa, or making a film about water irrigation while filming it and projecting it at the same angle on water. This way of coupling the medium and concept seems to have a much stronger impact to me — more tactile, engaging and alive,” he says. “Intuition is a wonderful, mysterious compass.”
For “Seas Are Sweet, Fish Tears Are Salty,” Alfaraj and Shaker sifted through the artist’s archives to try and understand the different ways in which he expressed his work through various mediums.
“(Alfaraj) is an artist whose practice doesn’t really fit rigid definitions; it’s very fluid, oftentimes using found or natural materials,” Shaker tells Arab News. “It was a fun process to spend time with Mohammad and understand all these different facets of his practice, to pull out prints and drawings from his stacks of papers in his studio in Al-Ahsa, or to go through his hundreds and hundreds of photographs that he’s digitized, as well as to think playfully about what it is that he wants to intervene in within the exhibition space.
“The experience was a balancing act between finding moments we can create impactful presence within the space, while at the same time allowing for in-situ interventions, which are very much characteristic of Mohammad’s practice,” Shaker continues.
Several new commissions were also developed specifically for this show.
“He came (to Dubai from Al-Ahsa) with a suitcase of papers and drawings,” Shaker says. “I found a note amongst his papers where he had scribbled an idea and it was a great opportunity for us to bring this to life.”
The show offers a contemplative and immersive encounter with a world shaped by memory, landscape and imagination; inviting viewers to take a deep breath, listen deeply, and trace the intricate connections between place, language and time.
On the exhibition’s opening night, June 25, Alfaraj and Shaker will discuss the show and the real and imagined worlds they evoked within. That will be followed by a 10-minute reflective performance by Alfaraj titled “The Missing Piece.”
And the artist is hopeful that his show will inspire change in its viewers.
“To make them feel — to inspire them to be more kind, to be more caring and more sensitive,” he says. “That would be more than I could ever wish for.”
